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Gnomes
Gnomes There are three primary groups of Gnomes scattered throughout this land, with each group arriving at a separate time, and they all remain fairly removed from each other. Civil Gnomes make up the largest group by far, and are the most commonly encountered gnome on the surface world. The Svirfneblin or "deep gnomes" as they are called, can be found in small numbers in the Underdark Kingdom of Silk beneath the Kharos Mountains. Finally, a much older group of black-skinned gnomes called the Alcharktiaz Gnomes lives in a tiny pocket on the grassy plains of Bhesina. Civil Gnomes Gregarious, inventive and friendly, the Civil Gnomes (or "common" gnomes) of the surface world are dispersed throughout the lands, but primarily live in their own country of Calcova. These are the well-known gnomes of lore, who relish in nature, gem-cutting, engineering, social activities, music and more. They arrived in Myradon from their original homeland of Hoobdaggen which was located much further west of the Mainlund across the ocean. The Civil Gnomes are fairly good record keepers, and their historical scrolls reveal that they were forced to leave Hoobdaggen to escape from a war being waged by a combined force of evil humans and goblins. The gnomes set sail east-ward on rickety ships (not being much suited to naval travel) and the majority survived the voyage to arrive in Myradon, where they set up villages in the barbarian-held lands of Calcova, where the center of gnomish society remains strong to this day. Smaller pockets settled in Sylivas, The Footlands, and Partha (although virtually all of the gnomish families in Partha have migrated back into Calcova in modern times). Civil Gnomes are almost entirely vegetarian, due both to a natural empathy with forest creatures, and because their stomachs can much more efficiently convert things like roots, tubers, mushrooms, and even lichen into calories, as compared to humans. This trait has allowed them to migrate into the dry, cold plains and patchy forests of Calcova, which were not so habitable by human settlers other than random nomadic barbarians. Svirfneblin Gnomes Found in the Underdark, the Deep Gnomes are a reclusive race, but a large number do exist as part of the people of the Kingdom of Silk, and Underdark society controlled by bizarre spider-like bipedal creatures, who employ the Svirfneblin as gem-cutters, miners, and other traditional gnomish jobs. The deep gnomes there do not claim any close kinship with gnomes from the surface, and so these distant cousins really do not interact much. Svirfneblin also sometimes appear in the Mist Mountains to trade with the Ikiro Halflings living there before slipping back into their underground tunnels. Alcharktiaz Gnomes These black-skinned, exotic gnomes existed on the Mainlund prior to the arrival of the Civil Gnomes from Hoobdaggen, and in fact do not even view these newly-arrived cousins as the same race as themselves. The Alcharktiaz are an incredibly insular, isolated people, living very simple, pastoral lives in earthen huts on the grasslands of Bhesina, where they spend their lives farming and working. They are not, generally speaking, a happy or gregarious people, quite different from Civil Gnomes in this regard. Their lives have been quite hard in the past, having to fend off human barbarian raids continuously, and this has perhaps made them bitter and distrustful of men. They currently enjoy somewhat better relations with the humans living around them (the monotheistic zealots of Bhesina), whom tend to simply leave the gnomes to their little scraps of grasslands without much contact, by way of a religious decree from their leadership whom deemed it sinful to steal from or molest this ancient race.